Tampa Bay Lightning fire coach Guy Boucher

WINNIPEG — The Tampa Bay Lightning fired coach Guy Boucher on Sunday.

Assistants Martin Raymond and Dan Lacroix will share coaching responsibilities for Sunday night’s game at Winnipeg.

“I’m not satisfied with the direction our hockey club is going,” general manager Steve Yzerman told reporters in Winnipeg. “This isn’t a reaction, a desperate act, to try to make the playoffs, although that is still our hope.

“It is done with not only the short term, but more importantly, the long term of our organization, where we’re going and where we want to get to (in mind).”

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Tampa Bay is next to last in the Eastern Conference with a 13-17-1 record. Boucher was hired as the Lightning’s seventh coach on June 10, 2010.

Boucher’s dismissal came one day after the Lightning fell behind by four goals in the first period of a 5-3 loss at Ottawa.

The Lightning appear headed toward missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season after reaching the Eastern Conference finals during Boucher’s first year.

Tampa Bay entered this season with post-season aspirations after adding goalie Anders Lindback and defencemen Sami Salo and Matt Carle. Lindback and team captain Vincent Lecavalier have been among the players sidelined by injuries.

Boucher’s hiring was Yzerman’s first major move as GM. Boucher had only one year of professional coaching experience, none on hockey’s highest level. But Yzerman was not deterred from making him the league’s youngest coach, saying the 38-year-old had adapted to the players, personalities and level of play he encountered at every stage of his career.

Boucher was a junior league coach for three years before taking over the American Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs, Montreal’s top minor league affiliate. He led Hamilton to the second-best record in the AHL then turned down a chance to coach the Columbus Blue Jackets.